Tue, Dec 06 2005

Cookie Exchanges

Some of us were discussing how little time we have to do all the extra holiday things that are fun and that we wished we could bake or sample more kinds of treats without spending days in the kitchen. I've never participated in a cookie exchange but I've heard a lot about them and they do sound as though they could be a practical way to get a wider selection of cookies and have a little social fun at the same time. Everyone bakes a bunch of one kind of cookie and then the bakers gather together and each take home several different kinds of cookies. Some folks apparently have a lot of ideas on how the exchange should be done. I doubt very much I'd ever exclude guys from an exchange. Some of the best bakers I've ever met were men.

At least one baker feels the chocolate chip variety of cookie should be left out of an exchange. Another feels that one batch of chocolate chip cookies will be fine as long as no one else bakes them. I suppose it would make sense to have some sort of list so that everybody didn't make the same spritz cookies or brownies or gingerbread men.

Exchanges can apparently be expanded to include stories and recipe booklets, but I'm thinking that this might snowball into one of those things that would end up taking lots of time and might defeat the purpose of easing the task of making so many things during December.

I did hear of one exchange several years ago that really sparked my interest. A group of church members who participated made a pact to make one extra dozen of whatever cookie they brought. The extra dozen from each baker was used to make cookie packs for holiday treat baskets for folks who were members of the same church but who weren't able to bake anymore. That would make a cookie exchange even more appealing to me.

It's too late to get things going for this season. Maybe next year.

posted at: 12:08 | category: /Food | link to this entry